Yemeni forces kill 3 suspected al Qaeda members

SANAA (Reuters) - Yemeni forces killed three men believed to be al Qaeda members in southern Yemen in security sweeps following the global militant group's recent attacks on state security forces, a local security official said on Monday.

Ahmed al-Maqdisi, head of security in the southern province of Shabwa, said the three men were suspected of participating in an attack on Thursday on a security convoy in Shabwa that killed five soldiers and was blamed on al Qaeda.

Al Qaeda's regional wing based in Yemen had previously focused its high-impact strikes on foreign targets, but has started to also aim them at government forces in response to a recent U.S.-backed crackdown on al Qaeda.

Western powers fear the militant group could be exploiting growing instability in Yemen, a neighbor to the world's top oil exporter Saudi Arabia, to use the country as a launchpad for attacks abroad.

On Sunday, gunmen killed six Yemeni soldiers in Shabwa, an oil-producing province. It was the fourth assault since June attributed to al Qaeda's regional Yemen-based arm that hit state targets, including intelligence and police offices.

Maqdisi said security sweeps in the Shabwa province to find those responsible for the recent attacks were ongoing.

Impoverished Yemen, facing an ongoing insurgency in its north and a separatist movement in its south, is under Western and Saudi pressure to quell domestic conflict to focus on al Qaeda, which has hit Arab and Western targets in recent months.

The attacks, including a failed attempt to bomb a U.S.-bound plane in December and a suicide bombing that failed to kill the British ambassador, have prompted Sanaa to respond with airstrikes and military assaults.

(Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari; Writing by Erika Solomon; Editing by Jon Hemming)